This invention relates in general to electrical conductor assemblies and deals more particularly with an improved flexible electrical supply cable.
Recent deregulation of the telephone industry has created further opportunity for others to enter the residential and light commercial telephone cable installation market. It is anticipated that telephone companies may be abandoning responsibility for installation and maintenance of telephones as a result of government "unbundling" of pricing for telephone installation and service, since the cost of new construction installation is likely to become prohibitive due to the loss of supporting business revenues derived from service. It is expected that this gap will be filled by the electrical contractor.
Now with the expanding availability of cable television and data service (CATV/DATA) throughout the United States, an additional cable installation, made at a proper time in a new home construction, is highly desirable and, if available, would probably be specified in a large percentage of new housing starts. A properly trained electrician, equipped with adequate tools, should be capable of installing telephone and CATV/DATA service as well as conventional power supply service.
Heretofore outlet boxes have been available which facilitate single point outlets for power and other service, such as telephone service, for example, however, such systems generally utilize separate cables for each service.
Established electrical codes generally prohibit the presence of electrical supply conductors and electrical conductors for providing other unrelated service, such as a telephone service, within a common insulation jacket, because of potential electrical shock hazards. If a nail or staple is inadvertently driven through such a common jacket and into contact with a normally energized electrical supply conductor and one of the conductors associated with another service, such as, for example, telephone service, the telephone service conductor may acquire the higher voltage potential of the power supply source. The resulting condition presents a potentially serious electrical shock hazard to the telephone installer or user.
It is the general aim of the present invention to provide an improved flexible free-stripping electrical cable assembly which includes within the common jacket power supply conductors and electrical conductors associated with other unrelated service and which overcomes or at least substantially minimizes problems normally associated with such cable arrangement.
A more specific aim of the invention is to provide an improved electrical conductor assembly or cable which enables simultaneous installation of electrical conductors for supplying a plurality of unrelated services and which may be coiled and stored on a reel without kinking the individual conductors which comprise the cable and readily adapted to conform to specific conditions encountered during cable installation.